Lake Macquarie Council has joined a chorus of people and organisations urging the government to strengthen air pollution regulation.

The council was a late entry to yesterday's national air pollution inquiry hearing in Newcastle after a few schedule changes.

Manager for sustainability Dr Alice Howe says the health costs associated with particulate matter in the Lake Macquarie community is about $70 million a year.

She says something needs to be done.

"What we'd like to see is some stronger national standards particularly around fine particles, so 2.5 and 0.1 for particulate matter," she said.

"We'd like to see more consistency across the country in terms of the regulatory standards.

"We'd like to see adoption of cleaner technologies and healthier lifestyles for our communities, so some support from the Federal government for those actions would be great."

The council says it is also keen to pursue talks with the New South Wales government to improve the region's public transport options.

It says vehicles and power generation are major contributors to the city's emissions, with the health costs of air pollution estimated at around $70 million a year.

Dr Howe says transitioning to cleaner technologies is vital to reducing air pollution in the region.

She says the council will continue to lobby for better public transport.

"I think there's a great opportunity to look at transitioning to cleaner technologies to promoting active transport," she said.

"We'd like to see stronger public transport within the city; quite a significant proportion of our emissions comes from vehicles and because of the geography of our city it's great if we could collaborate further with the New South Wales government on opportunities to reduce those emissions."

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